


By Any Other Name

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kids, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Married Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Parents Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski's Name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-13 12:18:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12983916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Having an uncommon name could be difficult at times, but having a name as out there as Stiles' was a freaking CURSE, even so, Derek was determined that his husband wouldn't be left out of their newly forming family tradition, no matter what he had to go through to do it





	By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> Another one for 12 days of Sterek <3 My name is fairly uncommon, but every now and then I can find it on bracelets/ornaments/magnets/etc, my mom isn't quite so lucky, her's is alot rarer than mine and let me tell you, we NEVER find it anywhere, so I can definitely feel Stiles' pain

Derek loved Stiles, but sometimes he really questioned his husband's taste in decor

Their house was an odd mix of classy and corny when it came to Christmas decorations, with some being beautifull and mature like the glass reindeer Stiles' grandmother had once owned, wile others...

Others were more akin to the Santa Claus that danced to Jingle Bell Rock that came into their lives three years ago

It was a blend

"Derek!! You're never going to believe what I found!!!"

"If it dances, don't expect me to be excited," Derek said playfully, gently nudging a gift under the Christmas tree

He didn't know how Stiles always found bizarre- if admittedly kind of charming- decor no matter where he went or what kind of errand he was supposed to run, but he always managed it

"No no, look!!!"

Turning his head, Derek startled at the sight of a little metal... thing... right in front of his face

He moved back an inch, eyes focusing on the dangling thing- wich he now realized was an ornament- and feeling a smile creeping up on his face

"Look!! Ella! I found Ella's name!"

"That's adorable," Derek confessed, watching as his husband immediately moved to hang the ornament on the tree

"But you know you're going to have to find one for Zoey too now, right?"

"Yeah I know, Zo's gonna be the harder nut to crack, especially since her name is spelled with a 'y', I don't know why people are suddenly just spelling it Z-O-E,"

Derek only shrugged, striding over towards the playpin a few feet away from the tree and picking up one of their daughters with a hum

"Don't know, I think it's adorable with a 'y',"

"Yeah, you've only mentioned that about a hundred times," Stiles teased back, wasting no time in heading over to pick up the other twin

"I can't believe I found that thing, I was just poking my head in Hallmark to get one of those little Itty Bitty plush things and it was right there!! I'm gonna go upstairs and start calling around to see if anyone has a Zoey the second I get done putting the groceries away,"

"Dare I ask what compelled the search for the Itty Bitty?" Derek snorted, making his way towards the kitchen

It was getting close to dinner time and even though the twins hadn't started crying yet he knew he'd better get them in their highchairs and get the food before they did

"I saw it in the window,"

"Uh-huh,"

Clearly he wasn't believing that

Not that he held it against Stiles or anything, but he had something of a propensity to seeking out geeky goods to furnish the home, and to "introduce the girls to geekdom early so they'll know we're cool from the get go"

He didn't believe the "Saw it in a window" story any more than he believed that getting two bags of frozen curly fries at the store instead of one had been an accident

"Oh! And, although I didn't find Zoey on the ornament rack, I DID find THESE,"

Derek paused, half-way to the kitchen, and glanced back at his husband as Stiles carefully shifted Ella onto one arm and fished around in his pocket with his free hand, yanking out a small bundle of similar metal ornaments with a "TA-DA!!" seconds later

Liam, Mason, and Chris

....

None of those people lived in this household

"Personalized ornaments for everyone! I'm gonna be hunting for Zo's like nobody's business but if I find them for our other pack members too I'll grab 'em,"

"Stiles.... this isn't going to turn into another 'name on a Coke' hunt is it? Because I can't live through that again,"

He remembered that summer vividly, it had been TORTURE the way Stiles would leap towards every cooler he saw searching desperately for cokes with the names of people they knew on them

(Their own kitchen had accumulated about six Dereks by now and Derek hadn't even wanted one to begin with)

"Nah, these are going to be WAY easier to find than Cokes,"

Somehow, Derek just didn't believe that

 

~+~

 

"Where the _hell_ have you been?"

The fact that Stiles had run out for "a quick errand" _five hours ago_ was more than just a little concerning to him, especially since he had the twins with him, and the twins didn't typically hold up well being out in public for that long

They may not have had the increased senses of werewolves, but faeries had their own sensitivities and being around strangers for so long definitely overwelmed them

He was surprised they weren't screaming this very moment, as a matter of fact

"I was picking up Zoey's ornament,"

"Where? _Canada?_ "

"Almost," Stiles huffed, gently handing the twins off to his husband so he could take his jacket off

"Apparently the store I reserved it from had misunderstood me, they thought I said _Chloe_ , there WAS no Zoey, so I had to run all over the planet looking for this thing, and you won't BELIEVE where I finally found it,"

"Petsmart?" Derek joked dryly, sitting down on the couch so he could start taking the babies' coats off, despite their squirming and squeaking, clearly not wanting to be fussed with any further

"Close enough- _Target_ ,"

Derek paused, staring up at him in disbeleif

"Seriously?"

"Yep, I went in to get dog food, having given up for the day, and on a wim went over to their Christmas aisle, they have an entire board full of little ceramic snowmen ornaments, not alot of variety mind you but I did manage to find THESE,"

Derek watched- starting to undo the buttons on Ella's coat- and felt is eyebrows raise as Stiles slapped the ornaments down on the table in front of him

There were several of them, with names reading _Zoey, Scott, Melissa, Isaac, Derek_ and _Lily_

"Lily? You bought one for the dog?"

"Sure! She's part of the family Derek! I figure it's going to be great, as our family grows, and as our pack grows, to add more ornaments to the tree and all you know? I'm nowhere near done, ofcourse, I'm gonna go to another Target tommorrow to see if I can find some other names like Lydia, Kira, Malia... those are definitely gonna be harder but I think I can do it eventually, just need the right time and place,"

Derek couldn't help frowning as he listened to Stiles speak, gently handing Ella to him as he got to work on releasing Zoey from her coat

"But... what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're getting these personalized things for everyone but yourself, let's be honest here, you're not going to walk into Hallmark or Target and find a 'Stiles' or a 'Mischeif', and you're definitely not going to find 'Mizecyslaw',"

"Yeah I know, my parents really gave me an A+ start to life with this one, but it's... it's fine, nothing ever has my name on it, I'm used to it,"

Derek didn't believe that for a second

He had always been kind of self-conscious about his name- if not completely used to it- but it just... wasn't right, in Derek's opinion, to have a tree full of everyone's names but your own

He knew Stiles couldn't be ok with that, and even if he was, Derek wasn't

It was one thing to have the kids' names on the tree and not their's, but now that Stiles had bought an ornament for Derek, he just couldn't reconcile not having one there for Stiles too- especially given that this was all his idea to begin with

"Stiles-"

"Hey, babe? Can you hang those ornaments for me? I'm gonna take the kids upstairs ok? I fed them wile we were out but if there's any hope in hell of getting them to bed on time I really need to give them a bath,"

Derek didn't bother protesting, folding Zoey's jacket as Stiles gently lifted her off of the wolf's lap and started heading for the stairs, Lily wagging her tail as she followed right behind him

Stiles obviously wasn't interested in discussing this name thing any further, so if he wasn't going to do anything about it, then Derek would have to

Rising to his feet, Derek headed into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, hoping that he would be able to get some information on what to do next

He hurried to dial Kira's number, hoping that she wasn't too busy to pick up at this time of evening

(It was only a little after six.... having kids _really_ screwed with his internal clock....)

_"Hello?"_

"Kira, hey, I can't really talk tonight but... do you think you could meet me for a few minutes tommorrow?"

 

~+~

 

"You're looking for a place that would have rare, personalized ornaments?"

"Or a place that could customize one, I need to find one for Stiles but ... out of the three names he's ever gone by _none_ of them are remotely common enough to be able to find at any ordinary store,"

"Yeah... I know that problem myself, Kira is a common name in Japan but... not so much here," the kitsune said with a shrug, taking a sip of her coffee

Derek was lucky that she always came to the same coffee place every day during her lunch break, it was easy for him to stop by wile she was on her break so they could talk without the risk of Stiles potentially overhearing at the house

Stiles kept telling him he should learn how to text but... this was easier

And it made for a pretty convenient excuse when he had split from Stiles and the twins earlier wile they were at the park

"Why don't you get one personalized online? That's what I did,"

"You.... you can do that?" Derek asked quietly

"Ofcourse!! There are all kinds of websites that will personalize just about anything, and ornaments are a pretty popular one, that's where I got mine a few years ago,"

"You might want to tell Stiles that you have one before he goes all over the country looking for a 'Kira' ornament," Derek teased, before quickly going serious again

"This personalization website thing... you can really get ANY name?"

"ANY name, sometimes even more than one name, you can get any ornament design too, not just Christmas stuff, there are some that have jobs and hobbies and even pets, it's pretty neat,"

"Sounds like it... do you think they'll be able to deliver by Christmas?"

That made Kira's face fall, and Derek immediately had his answer: Probably not

"Well.. it's just... Christmas is only a few days away, and it takes some time to personalize things- more than just putting stuff in a box and shipping it, you know?"

"I kind of figured as much," Derek confessed, a bit disappointed but atleast not completely crushed

The way he saw it, there were still options- there HAD to be

"Are there any other places that might have them?"

"Oh... I really don't know.... there's this place at the mall that specializes in Christmas decorations, if anyone might have peculiar names or might personalize on the spot, it'd probably be them,"

Derek felt a small shred of hope race through his blood, heart nearly skipping a beat

"Got it, thanks Kira," he said quickly, rushing out of the coffee shop

With only a few days left until Christmas, he wanted to make sure that he had room for error, just in case this place failed him

 

~+~

 

And fail him it inevitably did

The Christmas store DID have an enormous array of personalized ornaments....

But none of them even came close to having Stiles' name

In fact, most of the names were the same thing over and over again, just on different types of ornaments- jingle bells, snowmen, etc...

There were actually only about a hundred names or so that he had found, and as one can imagine, none of them were all that unique

They didn't do personalizations either

Derek was frustrated, to put it mildly, especially since he had had to call Stiles and make up some excuse about why he would be home late

He had gone through this entire thing at the mall just trying to find one single ornament and to no avail...

He would have to start looking for alternative options, maybe he could find a way to personalize an ornament himself or something...

He was just on his way out of the mall- trying to avoid the perfume and make up snipers along the way- when he happened to glance over his shoulder and see....

A kiosk full of ornaments...

He took a step closer, and sure enough, they were undoubtedly for personalizing, there were blank spaces everywhere just waiting for a name to be written in them

Yes...

Yes, this was it!

His solution!!!

Just as he was reaching out for one of them, his phone started to ring, and it wasn't one of the personal ringtones Stiles had set for him...

He took his phone out, checking the screen, and feeling his heart stutter as he registered the caller I.D.

"Hello?"

 

~+~

 

"Derek!! Where the hell have you been man!? I was about to launch a search party! And what happened to your phone!?"

"My phone?" Derek asked in confusion, shutting the door quietly behind him as he stepped into the house

It was late into the evening now, he wasn't sure if the twins were asleep or not but it was definitely worth being quiet

"I called you like six times and it kept going to voice mail,"

Derek was confused for a few seconds before it all started to click into place

"Ah... I turned it off and forgot to turn it back on, I'm sorry,"

"It's fine, just... worried, that's all,"

Wich was reasonable, given the lives they had, any amount of worry was perfectly reasonable in his opinion

"So uh... where were you anyway?" the spark asked, heading back into the living room

"Just had something to pick up, I was going to wait until Christmas to give you this but... I figure it might be better to do it now," Derek hummed back, handing a small gift box to his husband and watching with delight as a look of confusion flittered across his mate's face

"Um... ok..." Stiles replied slowly, taking the box and yanking the ribbon off, tipping the lid off and reaching in, eyes wide and mouth open

"My name..."

"Yeah, your name," Derek smiled back

"How did you-"

"There's a place at the mall that sells a bunch of ornaments with unique names on them, believe it or not I found your's,"

Ok, so he MAY be skating around the truth JUST slightly, but he knew it would mean alot more to Stiles if he just so happened to find the thing rather than have it specially made- that was why he had chosen to get a generic snowman ornament instead of something unique, so there'd be less to question

"Oh my God.... oh my God... I can't believe this,"

"Merry Christmas Stiles," Derek said softly, leaning over and giving his husband a soft kiss on the cheek

"Thanks... is .. is there something else in here?" he asked in confusion, taking the ornament out but finding that there was still something of a weight at the bottom of the box

"Guess you'll have to find out," Derek smirked back, waiting eagerly as Stiles slowly pulled the tissue papper out of the box, revealing...

Another ornament

"Annabelle?" he asked in confusion, taking the little metal jinglebell out of the box

"Who do we know named Annabelle?"

"No one... yet, but wile I was out I got a call from Carolynn Mitchell, the-"

"The woman who runs that supernatural adoption thing?"

"... Yes, her, she called and... there's a little girl named Annabelle who just lost her family, she's a three-year-old werewolf and... Carolynn thought we'd be perfect for her,"

Watching Stiles' face light up, the look of awe and amazement and joy, was worth the entire world to Derek

"When do we go to pick her up?"

"I was thinking... maybe tommorrow?"

"Then in that case we'd better go to bed early, how about we make dinner and then have a bit of a... celebration?" Stiles offered with wiggling eyebrows

"Sounds like a plan to me," Derek agreed, grinning from ear to ear as Stiles hurried forward and wrapped his arms around the wolf's neck, kissing him sweetly and excitedly as Derek wrapped his arms around his husband's back

Stiles had been right a few days earlier, as their family grew, so would the names on their tree

What a lovely tradition he had thought of


End file.
